A hop around Australia

Have you ever seen these animals?

They are called wombats and they are mammals and also marsupials. They are native only to Australia and they look somewhat like a little bear.

There are two basic kinds of wombats, the common wombat, and the hairy nosed wombat. They are nocturnal grazers, they eat mainly grasses and roots and live in large burrows up to 30 meters long. They are extremely strong and very proficient diggers.

They can be anything from a sandy color to brown or black to grey. The average wombat is about 1 meter long and weighs about 25 kg .

They can live from about 5 years to over 30 years.

Now would you like to see a wombat and his house?

Sydney is the largest city in Australia , and is the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.5 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City". It is one of the most multicultural cities in the world.

There are LOTS of things to do in and around city. Would you like to discover more....

What do you think of Sydney? Later we're going to discover what a wombat is..... Do you know what it is?....

Yes today we're going to talk about some of my friends... the kangaroos.

Kangaroos are found in Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. Kangaroos are mammals, and they are also marsupials. A marsupial is an animal that carries their young around in a pouch. The red kangaroo is the largest marsupial in the world. They can reach a weight of 90 kg. The kangaroo moves by hopping. They hop on their powerful hind legs and use their tails for balance and for steering. Even though kangaroos jump with their legs moving together, they are able to kick each leg separately when swimming.
Kangaroos cannot move backwards. They can hop at speeds of up to 60 km/h. A Red Kangaroo can leap as far as 8 m and 3m high. Kangaroos have very good eyesight but only when an object is moving. They also have excellent hearing, and they have the ability to swivel their ears in all directions to pick up sounds.
Kangaroos are grazing herbivores. They eat grass and leaves. Kangaroos need very little water to survive. An adult kangaroo is capable of going for months without drinking anything at all.
Kangaroos usually have one baby, called a joey each year. The joey remains in the pouch for nine months and continues to suckle until twelve to seventeen months of age. When the joey is born it is not much more than a pink hairless tiny worm.

Would you like to see a joey?...

What did you think of the joeys? Well on our next stop we're going to the biggest city in Australia, do you know what it's name is......

Today we are going to talk about native Australians.

They are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Indigenous Australians are the Aboriginals and they make up about 2.7% of Australia's population.

The aboriginals have lived on the Australian continent for over 40,000 years. There is great diversity between different Indigenous communities and societies in Australia, each with its own unique mixture of cultures, customs and languages. Aborigines today mostly speak English, with Aboriginal phrases and words being added to create Australian Aboriginal English.

Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old. If you would you like to discover more about aboriginal art watch this video...

Welcome to Ayers Rock.

Ayers Rock is also known by its Aboriginal name 'Uluru'. It is a sacred part of Aboriginal creation mythology. Uluru is considered one of the great wonders of the world and one of Australia's most recognizable natural icons.

Uluru (also Ayers Rock or The Rock) is a large sandstone rock formation in central Australia, in the Northern Territory. It is located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. It is more than 318 m high and 8 km around. It also extends 2.5 km into the ground. In 1920, part of Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park was declared an Aboriginal Reserve .

What can you do at Uluru?...

You can walk around the base (9.4 km.), you can climb up to the top, that's pretty scary, or you can take a wonderful night tour called "the sound of silence dinner" where you can have dinner under a million stars and listen to the sound of the wild animals...it's a magical experience!

Would you like to see some more photos of Ayers rock?...

Well yes... this is a very big fish with VERY big teeth!! It's called a great white shark. Its the most dangerous of all sharks and is the only one that can lift its head out of the water. But this is not the only shark that lives in Australian waters, luckily most of them are not as dangerous as the great white.

There is the whale shark which is the biggest fish in the world but does not eat people only plankton!

There is the tiger shark which is also very dangerous. It will eat anything... they have even found in its stomach cushions from boats and alarm clocks!!

And there is the Mako, which is the fastest shark, swimming at more than 7o km. per hour. It can jump out of the water, even into boats!!

And finally there is Bruce....

Yes... This is Darwin's favourite animal!!

In Australia there are two kinds of crocodile: the Estuarine, a saltwater crocodile and Johnsons, a freshwater crocodile. Both are found in the hot, tropical northern part of the continent.

The Estuarine crocodile, can live in salt water and is also able to go quite far up river into fresh water. It is one of the most dangerous of all the crocodile family, being the biggest and heaviest. It grows to between 4 and 7 metres long.

The Johnsons crocodile lives mostly in freshwater, but can also live in salt water. It grows up to 3 metres long. It is considered to be dangerous even though it is not known for attacking humans. Their long, flattened tail moves from side to side as they swim through the water, with their legs by their sides. Their movement in the water is powered by their tail. The legs are short with webbed toes, five on the front legs and four on the back legs. On land, crocodiles can run very quickly, lifting their bodies up off the ground.

All crocodiles have eyes and nostrils are on the top part of the head so that they can lie in the water almost completely hidden from view. Crocodiles have very strong jaws. They do not chew their food. They swallow it in large chunks. Crocodiles grab their prey and move to deep water, where they roll over to drown the animal. They can leap high out of the water to reach their prey if necessary.

Would you like to see crocodiles with a very famous Australian man called Steve Irwin...

Today we're travelling to Darwin which is it at the "top end" of Australia. It has a tropical climate and therefore has no summer or winter but instead a wet season from November until April and a dry season from May until October.

Darwin is a place of sunshine, beaches and some pretty dangerous animals which we'll discover later.

Darwin's tourist attractions include museums, beaches and national parks.

Would you like to discover what you can do in Darwin?

Well... now we're going to discover one of Darwin's native animals... and it's pretty scary....